Chapter 18

Other than an update that the young man I’d cured was now fully recovered, little else happened that afternoon (as I reckoned things, though technically it was a night time part of the diurnal work/sleep cycle). I did manage to keep the medical centre looking pristine until Healer Brecklan and his receptionist Tuquoi arrived to take over from Cass and Hiqua. I then returned home to join Kirim who’d just finished her shift for dinner with our friend Taisha.

Taisha was now a very happy young lady who, since I’d cured her and she’d lost her father due to his dealings with a renegade Gershonian Lord, had completed her neural link education and was looking forward to employment in the Bureaucracy of Interstellar Infrastructure ... the people who ensured the trading outposts and space stations got built.

“So what will your job be?” I asked as we ordered our food, the cost of which was taken directly from our account.

“Trainee Monitor in the construction division for the Vreekoos system.”

“So you’ll be working in space?”

“Yes, eventually. At first I’ll be checking that their cost factors aren’t running too far over budget on the ground,” she giggled.

“Don’t AIs build most of this stuff?”

“Yes, but like a lot of things in the Empire, we have people out there helping and ensuring the human factor is taken into account. Plus some people love being out there.”

“Yes, the ‘if you want a job, we have one for you’ rationale that you use,” I nodded.

“Beats the Gershon regime with their hordes of peasants simply spending their lives planting crops for the Noble class,” she shrugged.

“They’re not that bad,” I chuckled.

“No, but they’re an elite who don’t have the depth of skills and training the Empire has,” she agreed.

“That’s true. The description of their failure against Seventh Fleet when they were trying to sack Nimjul showed that.”

“Yes. This war is horrible, but I think we’ll win,” she nodded. “That was my second choice too, to join Fleet.”

“Too dangerous?” I asked, though suspected not.

“Not from my point of view, but Mother put a stop to it as I’m the heir to the Meritocracy,” she grimaced. “Not that I had any plans to work for my Father.”

“But whilst you’re alive, you have an oversight there?” Kirim asked.

“Until I marry, yes. Then it can be transferred to the current head, my cousin Andoy.”

“You keep the Bureaucracies in the family?” I asked a bit puzzled as it wasn’t an area I knew a lot about.

“Yes, like Nobles keep their titles,” she nodded as the food arrived.

“It’s all part of the great balance,” Kirim added, confusing me.

“Great balance?”

“The Empire is based on balance, the Bureaucracies balanced by the Nobles, Imperial Forces by ImpSec, AIs by human rights, etc.”

“Ah, I kind of see,” I nodded. “No one group too powerful as there’s always a counterbalance?”

“Yes, Dave,” Kirim nodded. “Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle and all overlapping to a degree as well.”

“We learn it at school. Though it’s natural that you wouldn’t know of it,” Taisha added.

“Ah, I see, though I suspect it has its flaws too.”

“Oh, most definitely. Cillort is one example, he was able to use his rank and influence to fool the AIs and subvert various other disaffecteds into treason.”

“Yes, I know Herrick is looking into how he managed to go so far. It was only his foolish mistake of going after me by his tame media that tipped his hand,” I nodded.

“Yes, it was foolish of him,” Taisha giggled as we tucked into the meal.

Afterwards we settled down to watch a tridee movie that the two ladies thought was wonderful but just confused the hell out of me as it dealt with sex and politics and affairs both hidden and open, all with an Imperial twist that I could not grasp at times. Still it did make both ladies feel romantic. They both took it upon themselves to enjoy my gift as we took to the grav-bed afterwards.

“No longer worried about being untouched for your marriage?” I asked Taisha when she was enjoying a hug from her post-orgasmic high.

“No, it can be fixed discreetly,” she giggled. “Plus, no one knows ... or cares about what we get up to down here just so long as it doesn’t get into the newsies.”

“Oh, I suspect they’re keeping their distance from my Dave now as he serves a Writ on them every time they intrude,” Kirim replied as she was manipulating my cock back to full stiffness again.

“I don’t mind them if they tell the truth, but I do go after them for the lies,” I shrugged then groaned as Kirim took me into her mouth.

“Are you getting an interview with Teelae again soon?” Taisha asked.

“Yes, she’s got a new primetime slot and I said I would,” I replied carefully as Kirim’s talented tongue was driving me crazy.

“Good, your last one was great,” she murmured as she pulled herself up to straddle my face as Kirim rose to grasp my shaft and lower herself onto it with a moan of contentment.

As Kirim slowly and exquisitely moved up and down on my cock, Taisha was gasping in pleasure as I tongued her pussy and drove her inexorably towards another orgasm. Her moans becoming louder as Kirim reached around her to caress her breasts.

“Oh ... so, so good!” she cried out as her body stiffened in a glorious climax, joined a few seconds later by Kirim with a squeal of delight.

This was enough to just make me explode into Kirim, taking her even higher as both ladies almost collapsed on top of me.

“We’re off to a good start,” Kirim almost purred as she leaned over to kiss Taisha and begin the dance all over again.

The following day I was doing what I considered to be my real job (janitor) in the medical centre, getting some of the hanging signs down that were there to promote good healthy habits ... or would have done if anyone ever bothered to read them ... or, in the case of some of the signs, could even read them as they were covered in grime. Still, the fact that I even had time to get around to them was pleasing to me as it meant the rest of the centre was pretty much spotless and sorted. For all she never mentioned it, I knew Cass at least was delighted by the now pristine condition of the centre and felt it was at least a better place to work. A lot of the other centres had taken notice too and had started their own clean up regimes, though often had difficulty in finding someone who would do it at the minimum wages they wanted to pay. I thought them cheapskates as they could easily afford twenty credits a day which was twice the minimum wage, particularly as there were a thousand credits to one Royal and the charity was paying the Healers ten Royals a day.

I had just got the last of the signs down when the doors crashed open and four gang members came in dragging another, who was bleeding profusely. Moving swiftly, I, along with Hiqua, got to the prostrate young man and realised it was Rogg. We then got the gang members to help us apply pressure to the wounds as Cass came running out with her wand and the weird looking sealant foam gun that was used to close wounds and draw them back together without scarring.

“What happened?” I asked a member.

“Ambush during a so-called truce,” the woman, Sulli, a hard faced enforcer for the gang, replied.

“We heading into a war?”

“We might if Rogg dies,” she muttered.

“Best make certain he doesn’t then,” I replied as Cass worked her magic with the wand and the sealing gun.

“Lot of internal injuries, but you can carry him to the treatment bay now. I have him stabilised,” she finally announced. “What did they stab him with; I don’t recognise this sort of wound at all?”

“Some sort of homemade flail, but with serrated blades on the ends rather than spiked weights,” Sulli replied and I noticed tears in her eyes as we carried Rogg to the grav-bed.

“Barbaric,” Cass muttered.

“It’s a hard life,” Sulli shrugged. “But this was unexpected. We need him back quick to calm things or it’s going to explode out there as the Green Vision are trying to move in to take advantage of the chaos and our people are fighting without a plan, which will descend into carnage soon and pull the Guardians in.”

“We can make it quick,” Cass replied, looking at me.

“Surrogate?” I asked.

“I’ll do it. I know what it is you do,” Sulli volunteered as both Cass and Hiqua were squeamish about surrogating in front of an audience.

“No problem,” I replied. “The rest of you out, except Healer Cassire. This isn’t a spectator sport ... well, not for me.”

Hiqua ushered them out whilst Sulli swiftly pulled her garments off, revealing a well-muscled body with a lot of scar tissue from her ‘active lifestyle’, along with several tattoos of the permanent type that were rarely used on Vreekoos.

“You realise you’ll lose the scars and tattoos?” I said as I pulled my own coverall and underwear off.

“I will? Good! Stupid mistakes and reminders ... all of them. Oh, and no making love, just fuck me and let me at Rogg!” she commanded and simply bent over the bed looking directly at Rogg, no one else.

“Your wish is my command,” I chuckled and lubed myself up to stiffness before moving behind her and sliding home carefully so as not to hurt her, making her gasp slightly.

Once inside though I just began thrusting away feeling her respond despite herself. The gasps became moans and then soft cries of delight.

“Fuck!” she gasped. “I never knew it could feel this good!”

“If it doesn’t then your partner is doing it wrong,” Cass commented from the side.

“Yeah, reckon you’re right, though he prefers the other hole, the shlecking pervert! Oh fuck me, what’s happening? Ohhhhh! By the gods! Ohhhh!” She suddenly stiffened and went into an intense orgasm which became even more acute as I released into her.

“Fuck me, that was amazing, guess that was what they call an orgasm,” she moaned as Cass got Rogg erect and guided Sulli onto him to mount him. “But this is the cock I’ve been after for years!” she sighed as she lowered herself down.